Foes target growth laws months before session

Feet to the Fire

As legislators prepare for next year's session, those in favor of weakening growth laws have started lurking the halls. Already, there are warning signs of what might come.

Danger No. 1: The big boys are at it again.

If you thought that development pressure was on the wane because Florida is terribly overbuilt, with one of the nation's highest foreclosure rates, think again.

Already filling the committee meetings are developers itching to get a piece of the action -- at everyone else's expense, of course. And some legislators are eagerly complying.

Once again, developers are arguing the ridiculous: that mega-developments should be approved regardless of whether they are needed to support the population. Shouldn't we at least see how many people can really afford houses before we start flooding the market with new homes?

Well, no, apparently. Large-scale proposals like Destiny in Osceola County are trying to get their approvals even though the 42,000-acre project is 30 miles from anywhere, and is in a county with a sky-high foreclosure rate. It can't get OK'd, though, unless the law is changed to say it's no longer necessary to prove a development is actually needed.

You would think the concept would be laughed out of the chambers, yet people like state Sen. Mike Bennett, a Bradenton developer, seem to embrace it. And Bennett is chairman of a committee that will have a big say-so on these issues. Uh-oh.

Danger No. 2: Legislators attack the one backstop.

The one thing Florida has done right when it comes to managing growth is having a strong state planning agency that can put the brakes on outrageous projects that local elected officials lap up. The case in point right now is the Farmton development that would span 94 square miles in Volusia and Brevard counties. Now a remote stretch of timberland west of Interstate 95, developers want to plop 20,000 homes there. And that's just fine with commissioners in Brevard and Volusia.

What in the world are they thinking? The state planning agency's review of the Brevard portion has found that a third of Farmton's land is flood prone; the project would hurt the habitat of protected species such as the black bear, and Farmton has not made it at all clear how or when things like roads would be built. Oh, and one more minor point -- it's not needed for the population.

Unfortunately, that state agency -- the Department of Community Affairs -- comes up for a so-called sunset review this session, meaning legislators could eliminate it altogether or bleed it with a thousand small cuts. That sure would make it a lot easier for developers and irresponsible elected officials. But it would leave the rest of us with the mess.

Danger No. 3: Misjudging the threat of Hometown Democracy.

There's one reason developments like Destiny and Farmton are in such a rush: so they can get approved before voters weigh in on Hometown Democracy this fall. It's a constitutional amendment that would gives local voters a veto over unplanned projects like Farmton. Developers and legislators alike absolutely hate the amendment and are trying to come up with schemes to stop it.

But they haven't come up with much. One proposal says that a county or city commission would need a super-majority vote to approve a project not in its comprehensive plan. That would do little good, though. Many, if not most, of those projects now get unanimous or near unanimous local votes.

In reality, there is little the Legislature can do positively this session to make local elected officials more responsible about growth decisions. It's just too late. But it can cause a lot of damage by doing things like getting rid of the "need" requirement or decimating the state planning agency.

Instead of discouraging support for Hometown Democracy, that would drive voters right to it.